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Found Things exhibition 2012

A higher nature - 2012 (SOLD)

I make flowers to sell at the markets and of late I have captured a few bits of car panel which have already been coloured. This flower is one� my girl is climbing� I seem to have a thing with climbing� and obviously with a flower this big it�s quite a challenge! I would hope our higher nature allows us to appreciate nature a bit more and not just regard it as something to economically exploit.

Baroque Balloon - 2012 (SOLD)

This is the Door handle from the witches stand�( see other sculpture)..It was all covered in Black paint that you couldn�t see the detail� I cleaned it and I thought its best use would be as a balloon form lifting someone off the ground� not sure it works brilliantly but it is such a lovely handle!

Bloom - 2012 (SOLD)

This piece was made for the �Found things� show. I had the idea of a pyramid form with a ring, I was helping a friend develop a flower and this ended up on it as well. I had the idea of my character pushing a ball.. gathering up excess junk as fertilizer for this growing form�sort of a human dung beetle�still I guess many of us do our best to nourish life wherever we find it�and beauty comes out of the most unusual settings.

captain hook - 2012 (SOLD)

This piece was made for the �Found things� show and uses this lovely pulley and hook�.I used to be amazed that planes were caught on Aircraft carriers by a tail hook� and to a degree our tow ball is something similar�still this is one of the first pieces I did for this show and again it was just playing with the different forms and seeing what resulted. The flag sort of was needed just to make it a bit more than a standing figure and it does add panache

Chariot - 2012 (SOLD)

I like to empower my characters. I did a little piece a while ago with a girl with an axe running enthusiastically� this piece is sort of from the same vein of thought�.do I feel whipped and controlled like this?.. No ! but I have seen similar situations ( maybe not with the actual whip and chariot) and it seemed an interesting composition to create.. it sort of made me smile.

Contraption - 2012 (SOLD)

With the found things exhibition part of what I am doing is letting myself play with interesting forms in my collection. This one suggested some sort of powered flying machine. I have no mechanical knowledge but I do like things that have moving parts and this one has a lovely spinny thing on the back�.It�s out of an old drill or angle grinder but it is reborn as this.

Core - 2012 (SOLD)

I found an idea in a book with pieces extending beyond the frame. In the original, they are just lines but bearing in mind a bit of safety I explored on paper what it would look like with curls�. It looked great!. I used these type of forms for some of my new Zealand exhibition pieces but this one is quite a change. I added the rock core( with the metal backing initially cause it looked good. As I thought about what a core is.. I decided that it is the core of values we all start out with.. some set in stone� and how we have a variety of paths we can take out into the society� some paths are outside normal society and we all have choices. Some paths require lots of work and some paths are easy� (I think of many of the bright kids I taught who took a vcal course because it was easy and their mates were doing it�).Anyway here is Core.

family links - 2012 (SOLD)

This piece was made for the �Found things� show. I had the wonderful chain and I used it in a number of pieces.. a small offcut suggested this form� when I thought about it the strongest links that could be made were family .. I did like the chain elements and it seems symbolic of what really exists.between family members.. and its sort of fun too..

feeding the giant - 2012 (Recycled)

A found spoon and the piece suggested itself.
It would seem to be a neverending task as even with a large spoon the giant would always be hungry�let alone the getting up and down a ladder�I suppose this is how stokers on ocean liners would have felt�the giant always seems to need more than what you can give..
We all have tasks like that at times !

flower girl - 2012 (SOLD)

Another of my girl pieces. This piece is sort of showing our relationship with nature. Nature is the support for all our lives..I have made my flowers bigger .. firstly as a bit of whimsy but also to emphasizes our relationship with nature. All of my work uses recycled material and this piece is almost a return to nature with the rusty petals.

Grist to the mill - 2012 (Recycled)

Handling the weight - 2012 (SOLD)

A recycled character, a restored handle, and an acrobatic combination. This was for the found things show in 2012 .Certainly a found thing!

Again I can’t lie on my back and spin things on my feet …yet another skill I have never developed. Still my character seems keen and it’s a good excuse for a punny title.

Inner Wheel - 2012 (Recycled)

I spoke at an �inner wheel � club recently and it is part of the Rotary organization� This doesn�t really refer to that but the name seems to have stuck.
This is based on the form I found as described in �Core� but here I have explored it in a slightly different way. I have kept the extensions in the curled form and added junk around the core of rock. Similar to core.. it has an inner �wheel� which is the center of our individual world .. we deal with the junk of life forming paths through the debris and clutter and reach a point where we can really grow . Child hood, adolescence and adulthood�and to a degree the great beyond!

life cycles - 2012 (Recycled)

Everything is connected but nothing connects� well that�s what this piece reflects. We all have events or parts of life which involve us fully at the time and often we are happy to see that part go�leave it behind�.yet in one way or another it has an effect in later stages of life� In this piece the pedals don�t power the wheel and the wheel does not interact with the wagon wheel rim, yet all are joined in one form or another�. A simple piece yet not bad I think.( not to mention the play on words with the life cycle and the bike bits�..!)

lighting the way - 2012

One of my friends was making an octopus and this sat in the back of my head. Still working toward this exhibition and thinking along Shaun Tan Lines this creation developed. I had found this wonderful light somewhere and the other odd bits came together with the roller skates. I must admit there are also elements of add science fiction movies and stories in it too.. No real deep meaning I think unless it is that we head in one direction but often trail a collection of debris behind us�..deep? or just a lovely silly piece.

Man of steel - 2012 (SOLD)

I was leafing through a book and the superman comic was mentioned as a “man of steel” It amused me immediately to interpret this in my own manner( working with steel as I do!). I must admit to loving comics as a kid but there certainly are lots of junky bits about Superman and the whole superhero thing. This is also the first piece where I have used colour through the whole piece and apart from being a bit tiresome to paint , overall I am quite delighted with the result. I like the 2-d form as this references the comics and the transparent nature also suggests we can see through this”rubbish”

Motion Detector - 2012 (Recycled)

Nevermore - 2012 (SOLD)

I was reading a book recently and images of ravens came with it…and at the Jindi sculpture show Janice hunter had cutout shapes of animals . Maybe they both fused in my imagination with the lines of an old poem by Edgar allen Poe which I had read in my younger days.. I could not remember the actual poem( I have looked it up since) but I did remember a sense of melancholy and sadness. Anyway this is another piece with birds and it is in a simple ….and for me ….unusual form. We do have both crows and ravens in Australia and they often hang around eating stuff …off the road..hence I thought to do Nevermore in red ( bloody ) so it would be appropriate to these guys.

Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.

Power Source - 2012 (SOLD)

This piece is part of the �Found things� exhibition. A lovely collection of wheels and bits make the main vehicle. I suppose I was always amused by the interconnectedness of things .. such as a butterfly flaps its wings in the amazon and weather patterns change��well it got me thinking a bit about what we take for granted� Hoses to pull vehicles� yet Eskimos use dogs� others use camels �. Again a bit of whimsy and I do like the way they all flutter but perhaps we do need to be a bit more creative in our thinking in all sorts of ways.

Rainbows for sale and rent - 2012

I had a student who was making a rainbow as part of her piece and it got me thinking about what I would do with a rainbow. I remember being amazed when water was bottled and sold and I feel almost everything is commodified. If rainbows could be collected they would be sold in the same way as bottled water, no doubt rainbows from say Belgium would sell for a premium out here�. Imported you know!
My rainbow has been brutally attacked and cut to pieces .. and my little character is a reference to stories of �the little people� with a golden hoard at the end of the rainbow.
A thing of beauty is best appreciated in its natural setting and in its natural form.

rescue me - 2012 (SOLD)

There is a song called rescue me.. which helped with the title but in this piece I started with a ring form that I had seen somewhere recently. At college we had to make a box ring which is similar to this and I did like the shape.. if not the actual ring as I don�t wear rings . As the piece developed and I found some of Mary Gabriels wonderful warm marble pieces to fill it up it seemed to me that it was suggesting being trapped in a situation and needing help. My characters are doing this and often we find we need someone else�s help to get out of trouble.With one side all metal and the other side rock it does suggest the material world as well as the natural world.

Rocket car - 2012 (SOLD)

This was for the found things exhibition... heavy but cool looking

Sail away - 2012 (SOLD)

I was doing a range of work where I was using lots of panels for part of the piece. I decided to do a boat after doing the bicycle boat and this developed as I went along. I like the idea of sailing although I have never really done it and I have created my boat in a particularly whimsical form. As to my characters� well they are just part of the story�This piece went to the Warragul rotary art show .and the title was suggested by a Randy Newman song that I really enjoyed when I was younger.

skater girl - 2012 (SOLD)

I have made a few skaters in the past� I am not a skater but I love the idea of the freedom it gives�.My mum when she was in her 60�s thought that it would be good to skate as she wasn�t getting around much�.I didn�t mention that balance would probably be the limiting factor. � For this found thing the skate is probably in just the proportions she ( or me) would need to be able to do this at all�and needless to say it�s a girl on the skate so I could do red and flying hair.!

The expulsion machine - 2012 (SOLD)

This piece was made for the Catharsis show in 2012. Catharsis means to purge or clean out and I made this�machine � to suggest such a possibility! I had been looking at lots of Shaun Tan type devices and my pile of scrap had a number of pieces which wanted to be used.
It is entirely whimsical although both the bell and the hammer do make appropriate sounds. Unfortunately the big horn hasn�t got going so although this piece is a catharsis of some of my lovely bits of junk there is a large part that hasn�t been �purged� ( and my pile is still pretty big.).
I am not sure if what I have constructed refers to my past teaching life where the bell was the end of the period and all the students were removed.. and the hammer.. was a way of relieving frustration( not on the students) but by creating something at home!. Perhaps I am now going through a catharsis by trying to purge all the ideas I had building up in me! It is a friendly machine though. And rather lumbering� sort of like me!

The path less chosen - 2012 (SOLD)

I had the idea of a path leading off into the distance ..and in this case� up�. My girl is about to take it. Perhaps it has a religious meaning or perhaps it is just typical of looking back and seeing other roads that could have been followed with probably quite different outcomes. I looked up the phrase and it is part of a lovely poem by Robert Frost
I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I� I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference..

the pursuit of dreams - 2012

With the found things exhibition I have given myself permission to play with all the bits I had been saving for something special. To a degree this has lead to all sorts of odd combinations but it has been lots of fun. This piece had a very basic sketch idea but it developed with the addition of the wonderful chain and the buggy spring. There is a nice sense of rhythm I feel and this suggest to me the sailing of the boat in the waves. My character is using a sail to �propel �the bike and my little girl is enjoying the movement� or is she completely unaware of this person in the background who is working so hard to provide her with this sensation�

The witch - 2012 (Recycled)

This piece for the Found things exhibition uses a wonderful door handle support�it sort of looked like the base of a pedestal column and of course you can�t have a column without something important at the top. My girl is recycled from a sculpture I did early in the year for the Art Blitz show and as she seems so �powerful� I thought she was ideal to go here. I really love the �Circe�sculpture by Bertram McKennall at the NGV and to a degree I have modelled my girl on that�.mine has nowhere near the beauty of that piece but she wields her own power

Thinking outside the box - 2012 (SOLD)

This found thing is one of my old sculptures. I made Box boy for the exhibition full play and although a lot of people identified with the sentiment of playing with the box more than what came in it no one took it home� My box was quite lovely( as you can see) so it suggested that it could be recycled into this form

Wedgetail - 2012 (SOLD)

This piece also developed out of the pieces at hand. I remember meeting a wedgetail eagle at the zoo once .. It hopped down from its perch and stomped over to the bars of its cage, wings extended and looking extremely stroppy� I was impressed!! And glad the cage was between me and him� In Canada the totems include the Raven and the Thunderbird and to a degree this might be a bit of a subconscious throwback to our visit�The rasps ( wing feathers) had sat there for a while and have a wonderful texture.( they are something to do with horses I think) and a friend ( Geoff) brought over a small collection of junk from his place and one of the bits immediately suggested itself as the beak. Abstract, symmetrical but with a nice sense of power�� I think.

wild ride - 2012 (SOLD)

As part of the �found things� show I am working with all sorts of odd bits and thinking how I can use them. This piece suggested this design and it reminded me of the movie Dr Strangelove and the final scene with Slim Pickens. The bit is out of one of my dead drills but it has a sort of missile /bomb feel. .

Young Rapunzel - 2012 (SOLD)

I have been making� girls� for a while now and I do enjoy making their hair interesting�. In this case I have tried to do a slightly different form and made it a bit more fun by standing her on the bench�Hair is quite a magical thing and I sort of understand why many cultures hide it away� I am always amazed when a girl who has had her hair up in a bun or some such thing , lets it loose�. still my girls hair is a bit �wirey� so it doesn�t quite have the same lustre, shimmer etc of the real thing. �still she has enough attitude to not be fussed by such things.!

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